The Seventh Tide (10 page)

One of the boxes was making heavy weather of its work.
Must be malfunctioning
, she thought. The machine couldn’t seem to make up its mind whether it had one or two rescue subjects inside it, or even what their
species
might be. (In the early days of the RNLI there had been instances of disconcerted seals being rescued against their will and popped into Medi-boxes, which then stalled on the Basic Limb Count.)

She went to check the other box.
It
seemed to be working properly, anyway. Jay was able to access the initial report now, with details of gender, height, weight, age, injuries, prognosis and so on. She got as far as ‘Subject is male, height 165 centimetres, weight 71 kilos (estimated dry weight), approximately 15 years of age, fractured left olecranon…’ when a sequence of frustrated beeps distracted her. It was the other, malfunctioning Medi-box, giving up the ghost. Its lid opened and a boy with beautiful fair hair climbed out.

A boy with beautiful fair hair, and an enormous rat…

She knew immediately that he wasn’t like her. It wasn’t just the big rodent round his neck. It wasn’t the clothes, though they were strange – nice material, nice style, but not like anything she’d seen before. Or the stunning hair (unconsciously she put a hand up to her own cropped head). It was something else, something about the way
his face was put together or a look in his eyes – something that made her overwhelmingly aware of
difference…

And then he grinned, a little shakily, and she was not so sure any more.

‘I don’t know when I’m going to get used to this,’ he said. ‘I’m Eo. Where’s Adom? He was trying to save us from the vortex, which was very brave, though it was actually the saint we were expecting to be given, so he may be a little confused. Well, actually, I am too. Where is this, and when is this?’

These were the kinds of question Guardians asked when they suspected you of being under the influence of over-patching. ‘Greater Glasgow, 30/10/2314,’ she answered promptly, ‘and
you’ve
been acting a lot stranger than
I
have!’ She didn’t for an instant think he could actually
be
a Guardian… could he?

‘What?
2314
?! That’s amazing! That’s really…’ He poked a finger at the creature round his neck. ‘Come on, Professor, aren’t you excited?! What are you being so quiet about? At least say hello to the nice lady – her box thing saved your life and groomed your fur all by itself.

The rat heaved a long-suffering sigh. ‘Very subtle approach, Eo. Confront her with some completely unexplained strangers, throw in a linguistically superlative ferret to top things off and then watch while she screams and/or faints.
Very
diplomatic.’

The animal turned his attention to Jay. Allow me to introduce myself, my dear. My name is Professor Pinkerton Hurple, and could you please take us to an adult person, preferably one with a good deal of power. I would also like to ask you, as a great
personal
favour, not to scream. Or faint. Or both.’

‘Well, I’ll be swamped,’ was all Jay could think of to say. ‘That’s some robot!’

‘Young woman, you are mistaken,’ said the rat, or –
no
, thought Jay,
more like a weasel –
I am
not
a robot.’

‘Really? Hologram, then?’

The creature tutted.

No.
I am
a ferret
… but not an ordinary ferret. I am a ferret gifted with speech. And a rather enormous IQ.’

Jay shrugged. ‘Fair enough,’ she said.

There was a burst of agitated and unintelligible words from behind her. She swung round to see another boy standing beside the other box. He was shorter, stockier and not nearly as pretty as the Eo person, and he was waving one of his arms about as he came over to them.

‘What language
is
that?!’ exclaimed Jay. ‘What’s he saying?’

‘Adom, there you are,’ cried Eo, sounding relieved. Then he turned back to Jay. ‘No, I suppose you wouldn’t recognize that – I’ll translate. He says he wants to know where we are, of course, but he’s also saying he was absolutely
sure
he broke his arm, back on the beach,’ Eo translated. ‘It hurt like – it hurt
a lot
, apparently. And now…’

‘The Medi-box fixed it,’ said Jay. ‘It’ll have healed anything that needed it – it’s not going to let him out still damaged, is it? It’ll have mended any rips in his, um, smock thing too. Given him and his clothes generally a quick clean and dry.’

But why do you need me to tell you that
? she wondered.
What game are you playing with me here? Where could you possibly come from that you don’t know what a Medi-box does
?

Actually, now you mention it, his skin’s looking a lot
better too – did you notice?’ the one called Eo commented to the rat. Weasel.
Ferret.
Then, ‘Hey! I wonder –’ and he wrenched back the sleeve of his shirt. There were three angry-looking sores on his forearm. Just seeing them made Jay suck in her breath, but he seemed resigned to them being there.

‘I’m really sorry… I think the box you were in must have been malfunctioning,’ said Jay. ‘Those look like they hurt!’

Eo shrugged. ‘G normally take care of healing themselves. Your box probably never met somebody like me before, and these –’ he pulled down his sleeve again, covering the welts – ‘well, if I can’t heal them, I guess it’s not surprising it couldn’t. My pain blocks are holding fine, though, so never mind.’

Jay wasn’t sure she understood much of what had just been said.

‘I’m sorry –
who
did you say normally heal themselves?’ she said.

‘G,’ said Eo. ‘That’s me. G.’ He grinned at her.

‘You’re… Gee?’ said Jay.

‘Yes.’

‘Would you care to spell that?’

‘Sure. It’s spelled “G”.’

‘But…’ Suddenly Jay realized that time was passing, much too fast. She turned briskly. ‘Come on – we really should go now. With any luck the Guardians and the Medics will accept the False Alarm I coded in, but there’s bound to be Maintenance staff on their way to reset the RNLI equipment and…’ She noticed the total absence of comprehension on her audience’s faces. ‘Never mind, just
come!
’

‘Am I correct in assuming our present location is, in some way out of bounds?’ asked the non-robot.

‘You might say so,’ Jay replied drily.

‘Why’s that?’ asked the boy.

‘Perhaps it’s some sort of holy site,’ suggested the animal. ‘Or a religious taboo.’

Jay rubbed her hand down her face. ‘Let me put it this way’ she said. ‘I’m leaving. You lot stick around if you want to.’

After a quick translation to the stocky boy the strangers fell in behind her without further argument.

It only occurred to Jay later that she’d become a minder after all.

By the time she got her party of weirdos to the nearest station, it was late enough for the platform to be almost completely deserted. The few remaining commuters gave them some pretty disapproving looks, but nobody had the energy to ask questions. Jay had no trouble finding them an empty pod.

And this will take us to a person in power?’ the ferret kept wittering, but Jay resolutely chose not to hear. She was in no hurry to hand them over to
anyone.

Thank goodness there’s nobody waiting for me at home
, she thought.
How lucky is that
!

I think we’ll take the quickest way’ she murmured to herself, coding in the route.

As the train set off, Adom sat bolt upright, not moving a muscle. It looked as if, on some illogical level, his brain was telling him that the only way to survive all this strangeness was to not draw its attention.

Eo, on the other hand, was fidgeting all over the place.
He was having difficulty making himself comfortable leaning into the curve of the wall. ‘Things are quite
round
in your world, aren’t they?’ he said, waving a hand at the train of spheres moving through the cylindrical Tube.

‘What? Oh, yes, that’s right. Well, they would be, wouldn’t they? It’s the whole water-pressure thing. Spheres are the best shape underwater because the pressure gets distributed equally all the way round. Also there aren’t any seams. You use a square shape, you’ve got floors having to meet walls and walls having to join up with ceilings – and you’ve got leaks just waiting to happen. Spheres you can build all in one. Here…’ She reached across and showed him how to get a padded back to the bench to rise up from inside the seat. ‘You can do what you like with the
inside
! See…’

But before she could show them anything else, another panel emerged. A slot in the front opened and a tray with a bit of silvery material on it slid out.

Jay made a rude face at the dispenser, took the proffered patch and stuck it unceremoniously on the underside of the bench.

‘Um…’ said Eo. And that was?’

‘Patch dispenser. The sensor’ll have picked up a raised adrenalin level.’

The others stared, first at her and then where she’d dumped the patch.

‘Is that bad?’ asked Eo.

Again the question came to her.
What game are you playing
?
Do you really expect me to believe you don’t know…?! There’s no city on earth that doesn’t monitor, that doesn’t patch…

‘Don’t mind us – if you’re supposed to be, er, applying
a, um, thing, you just carry on!’ said Hurple. He seemed very polite, for a rodent. He also seemed completely sincere, as far as you could tell through the fur.

I just can’t believe they’re lying
, she thought to herself.
It feels like they really do not know! They really do come from.… somewhere else
!

(It was at this point that something shifted permanently in her own brain. Instead of thinking,
Wouldn’t it be great if these weirdos were, I don’t know, aliens or something
, she was now suddenly, totally convinced that that was
exactly
what they were!)

‘Sure – go ahead!’ the boy Eo urged. ‘We don’t mind at all!’

‘What? Oh no. Look, it’s not like it’s the law or anything!’ She certainly sounded defensive, even to herself. This wasn’t the bit of her world she wanted strangers to focus on too much. And she didn’t want to even
begin
to explain how the Guardians always checked up on anyone who
didn’t
take a patch they were offered. ‘Patches are more of a…
suggestion.
’

‘Well, as the Professor said, don’t let us get in your way. Just you ignore us. You do whatever you do do… normally, I mean,’ Eo said, with good manners but not a lot of clarity.

The dispenser stuck out its tray again. There were two more patches on it.

‘Cool! For us?’ chirped Eo.

Jay swore, and slapped the patches under the seat as well.

‘Looks like the sensors haven’t noticed you, Mr Hurdle.’ She began to dig about in her bag.

‘Here – put these on,’ she said, extracting three gauzy
rectangles from the very bottom of her bag. She showed the boys how to put the material over their nose and mouth. When they inhaled – somewhat nervously – it instantly dissolved. A moment later the dispenser retracted into the wall.

Adrenalin maskers,’ explained Jay. ‘Gets the dispensers off our backs, and the Guardians. I’m not planning on trying to explain you lot to anybody just yet!’

Eo and the ferret exchanged glances.

‘So… not legal, as such?’ the Professor asked.

Jay snorted rudely.

‘How did you learn about, um, this technique?’

She shrugged. ‘Kids at school. You can buy maskers easily enough if you know who to ask, but I get them from Mum’s work. The surgeons prefer to work on conscious candidates when they do implants – it makes it easier for some reason – but they don’t want every sensor in the place going crazy! Anyway, I know the code to the stockroom… Don’t worry, though, these’ll last for hours, and I’ve got more at home. If we need them.’

Every now and then either Eo or the ferret would have to stop and translate what was being said for the other boy. It didn’t seem to make him any less confused, however. His big plain face was all wrinkled up with bemusement. Then, suddenly, he asked Hurple a question.

The animal chuckled.

‘What’d he say?’ frowned Jay.

‘He was just wondering if you were a crazy person. He’s never seen a basically bald woman before, and you sound – to him – like you’re gibbering.’

‘BALD?!’
Hey
! she thought.
He called me a woman
!

I
like
your hair!’ put in Eo hastily but Jay ignored him.

‘Well, I’m not crazy’ she said. ‘I’m not talking gibberish, and I’m not bald! This style cost me a lot of credit, I can tell you –
andyou
can tell
him
, he’s not so drop-dead gorgeous himself – no, wait,
I’ll
tell him.’

She pulled back her sleeve as if to scratch, but instead began to tap on her forearm, complicated patterns using index, middle and ring fingers, singly and in combination.

‘There’s something inside your arm?!’ gasped Eo.

She looked up. ‘My computer,’ she said. ‘What do you think I am – some kind of
child?!

‘What are you doing?’ asked Hurple.

‘I’m accessing a language program for – what is that he’s speaking? Some sort of antique Gaelic? So I can tell him to his face
my
opinion of
him!

‘You can do that?!’ The animal seemed extraordinarily excited by this.

‘Well, yeah. Languages are all pretty much the same. Download some vocabulary, a bit of grammar, guide to pronunciation – the brain uses the same pathways for Swahili as it does for Mandarin. Anything
he
can speak,
I
can speak!’

‘Astonishing! That it should be so easy, I mean! In my time, humans’ understanding of their brains was that they were a complete jumble of incredibly complex relationships, with the simplest thing making synapses fire all over the park!’

Jay looked over at him. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘That’s
how it
does
work. But –’ and here her voice seemed to shift – ‘it’s no problem navigating if you’ve got a decent map! Isn’t that true, Adom?’

‘That’s right,’ said Adom. ‘What?!’